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UM3 custom material transfer issue

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I have read some similar discussions about the issue of adding custom materials in Cura and then not be able to choose those materials on the UM3 printer.

In my specific case, I defined a custom material for my PCL filament at 60°C extrusion temperature on Cura, but I cannot choose it on my UM3 as a printing material. I read on some threads that I could instead copy a similar existing material, unfortunately there is no existing material that is remotely close to PCL in behaviour. Anyways I have not found a way that my custom material or something similar is transferred to the UM3.

Did someone have a similar issue or can maybe someone from Ultimaker comment on this issue of transferring custom materials to UM3?

Many thanks

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I just skip all of that and save a project file with all the settings. I gave up on any custom profiles a while ago due to various reasons. But a ".curaproject.3mf" file saves everything and is always loadable. Just make sure you use the save project choice and not save.

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So I save my project wit "save project", put it on my USB stick and load it onto my UM3? Because if I do this, I do not see the project file on the printer interface..or how do you transfer it to your printer?

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Is there a way of connecting the printer to cura in order to print my custom material? I defined the custom material on cura, all good, it even let me choose a printing temperature as low as 60°C. But now I want to print this file with these settings and therefore I have to load my filament on my UM3 printer, which already is not possible because my custom material does not appear on the printer interface (I usually put the prepared file from cura on my USB stick, then I put the stick into the printer).

Am I missing something? Should the printer be linked with WLAN or LAN to a cura-operating computer in order to do this?

When you set a custom material in Cura, you are starting with an already established material. Let us say you are printing in PETG.

I use the nylon settings to start with because that will let it load the material at the right temp and have good flow when loading. Some choose CP or CPE. But, this is an example.

So, since I choose nylon as my base material, and I load another material, in this example, PETG, I will choose nylon when it prompts me when loading. From that point on, the sliced file has control over printing temps and all other settings while printing. For me, the most important thing is to match the loading temp. This will also allow for using the move command and ensure good flow. The rest is up to the Cura sliced file whilst printing.

But, that is why I save my project files.

I archive all my files

It has all modified setting for that material and layer heights

will always load with those setting for ease of set up

Does not get lost in upgrades or even have issues between versions as some have found

Hope this helps. I know it is disconcerting for people that are moving from an earlier UM machine to the UM3 and above. Since I started with the UM3E, it has never been a thing for me to process. I just pick stuff from reading almost all the posts.

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Well I wouldn't tell the printer anything. I would first of all disable auto leveling because that will heat the cores much too hot for PCL. I would let the printer think that there is PLA in the printer. I would use this device to load and unload all materials (that's what I've done the last few years on my UM3 - I haven't tried the normal loading procedure):

Before you load any material you may want to do a cold pull to get the older high temp filament out of the nozzle.

After loading the new material I do not use the move command. I just heat the nozzle manually to the desired temp and insert wedgebot and shove the filament hard until it is extruding nicely then retract (manually) about 1cm and remove wedgebot.

You probably have to add a cold extrude gcode to your gcode file before printing it. I don't think the UM3 will normally allow the extruder to rotate below 170C. Here is the gcode:

If you go to print and the extruder is not rotating then add the above line to your gcode file right after the lines of gcode that heat things up but before the nozzle purge part. It might be that the printer will heat to 200C for the purge even if cura says the printing temp is 60C. Will this be a problem? Try it first. If it's a problem then you can switch cura to reprap mode.

In machine settings you can print in reprap mode where cura will have a set of "start gcodes" that you can edit and you can make sure the initial purge is done at 60C. You can add the M302 S0 in the "start gcodes" as well.

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@gr5 since you have experience in PCL printing, would you care to share with me some parameters like printing speed that are working best for you? Do you even heat the plate? So far I had someone else do it for me, but he always complains about how difficult it is to find the settings for a decent looking print.

EDIT: I tried my first print, nozzle temperature was at 60°C, great. It also went to 200°C for purging as you predicted. However the printed layer did not stick to the plate, do you have any recommendation on how to deal with the plate? (heat it, coat it with glue, or else?)